THIS WEEK: We hope you’ve all had a good holiday season! 003 sure didn’t. We follow the 00 cyborgs on their once-in-a-lifetime round-the-world trip; there are multiple reminders to never do contract work for Black Ghost; the team gets increasingly salty over translation foibles and fight over who gets to punch Ishinomori’s ghost; Black Ghost has a thing about aquatic animals; we are all 007; we dig into Françoise and G.B.’s backstories; and apparently people don’t know how to write Native Americans in the year two thousand and goddamn one.

TOPICS:

Clarification of the cyborgs’ physical ages

Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier (2001) 9-13

Black Ghost is having a bad fiscal year

Dr. Berg is a reject character from Girl Genius

The Dragon Triangle

Sven hits the doubt.jpg jackpot

Aurora Borealis? At this time of year?

is it too late to start a “shut up, Jet” counter

Professor Findol invented the Shagohod

Moral condemnation of arms dealers

[sound of Françoise dissociating at light speed]

Ishinomori hates parents like Araki hates dogs

Going home is horrible and you should never do it

Scarecrow is the only shining light in “Mystical Island”

005’s characterization and depiction

Venti London Fog

G.B.’s beautiful locks

BEE BOMBS

Analyzing G.B.’s chauvinism and his motivations compared to the play-within-the-show